Pardon the French, but sometimes you really do have to ask WTF?
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080108/NEWS14/456507462
Group protests memorial of Maryland family killed in Toledo crash
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BALTIMORE — The memorial service Tuesday for five members of a Maryland family killed by a wrong-way truck in a Toledo highway accident included some uninvited guests.
Three members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, known for protests at military funerals, demonstrated about a block from St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, the site of the service.
The demonstrators said the deaths are God’s retribution against the community for a recent $11 million jury award against the Kansas group. A federal jury in Baltimore made the award in October to Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., who sued after the group protested his son’s military funeral in Maryland.
The community is going to “pay the price” for persecuting his group for preaching the word of God, said demonstrator Fred Phelps.
A mother and four children died in the Dec. 30 crash on Interstate 280 in Toledo, which police said was caused by a drunken driver.
On Monday, a Toledo hospital released 8-year-old Sydney Griffin of Parkville, who was being treated for injuries sustained in the crash.
Michael Gagnon of Adrian, Mich., appeared briefly in a Toledo courtroom Tuesday, and a preliminary hearing on five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide was continued to Thursday.
Gagnon’s blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit when he slammed his pickup truck into the family’s minivan, police said.
Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church are a bunch of nutjobs who usually protest military funerals.
This time they have REALLY crossed the line. I suspect that their attention-getting BS will only serve to marginalize these idiots further.
Wow, I know it's a free country and all, but don't we have a gulag for these folks, maybe in Eastern Europe somewhere.
Is Billy going?
posted by jhostetler on Jan 08, 2008 at 04:20:56 pm
WTF is wrong with you jhostetler?!
This group does NOT represent Christianity in any way shape or form. They are polar-opposite to Christ. Just because they have the word "Baptist" in the name of their church and use the name "God", doesn't mean they are Christian.
I happen to know "billy" on this forum and know he is the most caring and loving man in his church...NOTHING like those wackos.
It was a joke. A bit harsh, but a joke nonetheless.
No, actually it wasn't, but here you go: Sorry for offending you.
As an aside...
"Just because they have the word "Baptist" in the name of their church and use the name "God", doesn't mean they are Christian." -- I think they are clearly claiming otherwise.
fucking nutjobs. i hope they rot in hell
ok, that was pretty harsh... but gimmie a break!
"As an aside...
"Just because they have the word "Baptist" in the name of their church and use the name "God", doesn't mean they are Christian."
I agree 100%. How 'bout them apples??
Nothing funnier than religious wackos denouncing religious wackos.
--I kid because I care.
I was at the Memorial today for the Griffin family and my two nieces Lacy and Haley Burkman. It was a very moving and emotional 3 hours. Dan Griffin made one of the most moving speeches (ab libbed) that I have ever heard. I wouldn't have known about the presense of the protesters from Kansas except from the brief mention made during the beginning of the Memorial. They had no effect on the incredibly large turnout to celebrate the lives of Bev and her "angels."
bonsaijrb...glad to hear that the protesters didn't spoil the memorial service. Its hard to tell from the media stories.
I think its horrendous that any group would protest the memorial service of an innocent mother and children...even worse that its a group that tries to say its doing God's will. Shameful.
These people are relentlessly random:
A song entitled God hates Ireland?
http://www.thesignsofthetimes.net/specialav/2007/20071002_godhatesireland.html
Here's the rest of the signs:
http://www.thesignsofthetimes.net/watchsignmovies.html
They're just asking to be mocked.
Someone should hold a huge "God even loves assholes like these" sign high above theirs. Or dress like satan and hold a sign that says "Westboro seems legit." Or dress like the android Star Trek guy with "highly illogical captain."
I totally got all the bad ideas covered.
I was especially annoyed because Fox Toledo's Shaun ("Howdy Doody") Heggarty spent a whole segment on the day of the memorial talking about the protesters rather than the family. I thought it was incredibly insensitive to read paragraph after paragraph from the website of these nutjobs while saying nothing about the family whose lives were snuffed out.
Ace_Face - That's what has annoyed me as well. The website in Baltimore I use to keep up with Baltimore news, WBAL.com, showed two pictures from the Memorial, with one being the 3 "protesters." Their protest was based off the "Church" losing a lawsuit????? and I guess a high profile Memorial is where they thought, and correctly, they would receive publicity, good or bad.